EP Alex Kurtzman has now provided updates on all three live-action Star Trek series that are on their way.
The pandemic has hit the TV industry hard across the board, the Trek franchise included. With the news that Discovery is officially receiving a fourth season which is set to shoot next month, though, it seems the schedule is starting to get back on track. But where do things stand when it comes to Picard season 2 and Strange New Worlds?
Well, Kurtzman spoke to SFX Magazine and explained that, yes, obviously production has been delayed on both of those shows. It appears that things are most up in the air with Picard at the moment, but the EP seems confident that they can move forward smoothly with DIS and SNW.
“Things are just starting to shoot again,” Kurtzman said. “We would have been in production already on Picard, but we couldn’t be because of COVID. It’s pushed our Discovery and Strange New Worlds dates just a little bit, but I think we’re actually planning on staying on track for those. By the time they shoot, we will have innovated with a couple shows, and we will know where we are. And we will be a little bit more down with a process.”
Kurtzman then went on to explain how the production teams are being hyper vigil about the threat of COVID-19 and are trying their best to limit the spread of the virus.
“So I’m hopeful… it’s a very systemized, militarised operation now, that’s really rigorously being constructed around making sure that everybody is safe and that the sets function in pods so that if one person is sick it does not necessarily infect the entire group.”
As other TV producers have said, Kurtzman added that the upside of the delay to filming is that the writers have had more time to develop their scripts, meaning that the process has been much less hectic than usual.
“The silver linings are that Akiva [Goldsman] and Henry [Alonso Myers] are ready to show up and able to really get ahead with scripts,” he says. “By the time we go back into production, we will have a lot of scripts ready to go, which is not usually how it is for us. We’re always running ahead of the freight train that is production and trying not to get flattened, but this time we actually have some advance warning with a lot of prep time.”
We’ve previously heard that Strange New Worlds is gearing up to start shooting in early 2021, while Picard should have returned to production this past summer. Star Jeri Ryan did say it would instead go before cameras this fall, but that doesn’t seem to be happening anymore. It’s frustrating that Kurtzman didn’t provide us with some more details on that with these comments, but at least we know that the other two series are shaping up.
Star Trek: Discovery season 3 continues Thursdays on CBS All Access.